Now you've heard everything.  Hockey East is apparently
    petitioning to the NCAA to be allowed to change their league
    games to two 25-minute halves!  Talk about losing all the
    credibility that they've worked so hard to build up.  The
    main reason for this, as expected, is the mighty dollar sign.
    Cable tv thinks the games are too long.  If I hear that
    there's a serious chance of this actually happening, I'm going
    right up to the commish's office myself and voice my opinion.
    It would give me a good excuse for a vacation in Maine.
 
    There are so many reason this is wrong:  bad ice at the end
    of the game, players having to get used to two different game
    lengths for league & nonleague games, the NCAA committee possibly
    looking at HE teams differently because of their shorter games,
    having to throw all the record books out the window, and so on.
 
    On the positive side of things (unrelated), it looks like HE
    teams will be setting up some kind of schedule with the Alaska
    teams so that each year, several HE teams will go to Alaska and
    they will in turn come here to play several teams.  It won't be
    anything like the old interlocking schedule with the WCHA, though.
    It's just an unwritten agreement to schedule more games against
    each other.
 
    I have a VERY shaky copy of the 90-91 HE schedule.  It includes
    tourneys at Providence, Maine, the Auld Lang Syne at Vermont with
    Northeastern & UNH, BC & BU playing Harvard nonleague, and both BC
    and BU going to RPI (!).   Next week I'll try to send out some of
    the notable nonleague matchups.  There are still more HE-ECAC
    matchups.
 
    As for recruiting, I have the list at home, but Merrimack has signed
    seven HUGE players (all over 6'0", 200) for next year.  A couple
    are real blue-chippers, big forwards who can score and hit.  Two
    other guys they really wanted were lost to BC and BU.  Merrimack
    was close to getting them but when one suddenly had a great Hockey
    Night in Boston tourney a month ago, BC came a-calling and said
    they'd take him if the kid went to prep school for a year - so
    guess where he's going next year.  Could be a risk, but those
    kids just can't say no to BC.  Another kid, Matt Smith, a star
    with state champ Catholic Memorial, was all but signed when BU
    expressed an interest, and since almost all CM kids want to go
    to BU, he was lost.  Ron Anderson is learning how hard it can be
    to recruit in Hockey East.  Before, everyone ignored him so he
    was able to get the kids like Jim Vesey, Jim Hrivnak, Mark
    Ziliotto, Richard Pion, Chris Kiene, etc. but now when BC/BU
    hears Merrimack is interested in a kid, they go take a look
    too, and more often than not if they really want him, they
    can get him.  That's why almost all of Merrimack's recruits
    for next year are from Canada - two from Saskatchewan and one
    from Nova Scotia.
 
    Here's hoping Shawn stays in Maine!  Somehow I think he'd be
    against the two halves.  But that's another reason he might go
    to Denver - if he thinks they're really going to do it...
 
 
    - mike (one more final to go! and this one's a killer...)